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Kelly: Occupy idea's time has come

Occupy Wall Street is more than two months old now, and has grown into Occupy Everywhere. It’s an idea whose time has come, and you can’t evict it.

Tear gas, rubber bullets, tearing down tents, confiscating libraries — all the pitiful attempts to get rid of this movement have only made it stronger, and better. The people in this movement were first ignored, then made fun of, and eventually there was no choice but to listen. Just like the tea party, there were fringe elements – and the media focused on that. But it didn’t work.

Unlike the tea party, the fringe element didn’t pack guns, and carry signs showing the president as an ape, or a Fascist. Unlike the tea party, this was a true grassroots movement — it was not funded by radical, wealthy people or groups. The age range is also very different in the two groups. Young, middle aged, and elderly people have been at Zucotti Park, and in parks all over the globe. Tea party groups were mostly old, and went home to their comfortable homes after “protesting.” Look at the diversity in the two groups — which one looks more like America? The real America?

Some have been critical that OWS had no agenda. Nonsense. First of all, their agenda has been in writing from the beginning. I read their collective statement and would repeat it here, but it is too long. The short version is — They protest mass injustice, bailouts, foreclosures, obscene profits, stripping employees of rights and health care, and they assert their rights under the Constitution to peaceably assemble and to work with cooperation toward a better future.

But this movement is not just about banks and greed and finance. It’s about a different consciousness — a paradigm shift — which is why the media and establishment types don’t “get it.” Before you build something new, you have to change the old. Some of the new things it does are 1) it names the source of the crisis; 2) it presents a new public debate, a new vision, a new narrative; and 3) it uses deep democracy as a way to function. All have a voice in this new world view.

These protestors are brave young people, and many of them are veterans. Veterans who know what it means to stand up for justice, and teach it to others. We should be proud of them — but instead they are arrested. For what? Not following the rules those in power impose, arbitrarily. One sign I saw reads “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, there will be peace.” That says it all.

All positive change in history starts with the power of an idea, just as did the American Revolution. This just might be the start of another revolution, one that benefits the people who are not in power. The Civil Rights Movement began like this, the Free Speech Movement, the Vietnam War protests. Thirty years of silence about what has happened to regular people is ending.

As Ghandi said,

“First they ridicule you

Then they ignore you

Then they fight you.

Then you win.”

They have already won, in my opinion. It is almost winter, and they are still there. They are still marching, they are still occupying, they are still evolving. They show us what to do when we are “mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.” (“Network,” the movie — 1976)